Code of Conduct and Modernisation Committee

Richard Foord Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

Let me say how impressed I am by all the maiden speeches that we have heard this afternoon, in particular that of the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Patrick Spencer), who talked about the importance of restoring moral probity—a relevant subject for today’s debate. It is good to hear that he heard that subject raised on many doorsteps during the election campaign; so did I. It was good that he referred to his predecessor, Dan Poulter, who was an example to many people in this place. He used his experience in another job—I will not say a second job—to inform debate and make sure that things said in this House were based on experience and knowledge that can only be found through the personal experience of professionals like him.

As Members of Parliament, we are fortunate to have one of the most satisfying jobs in the world. There should be no such thing as a safe seat, some kind of sinecure; the job of MP ought to be earned through hard work and dedication. The public put their trust in each of us to be their champion and their voice. The Liberal Democrats welcome this debate on the code of conduct, and in particular the fact that it will examine second jobs. The primary focus of all Members must be on serving those people who elected us and put us here. In recent years we have seen a series of scandals that have weakened people’s trust in politics and politicians, and I welcome the fact that the Modernisation Committee will seek to restore some of that trust.

Aside from the scandals of the sorts referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain), there are a tiny number of MPs who are really quite absent. I want to illustrate the problem with one of the more egregious examples—the case of the right hon. and learned Member for Torridge and Tavistock (Sir Geoffrey Cox), who is not in his place, but whom I notified that I planned to refer to him. He is a former Attorney General and a very eminent barrister with a high-profile career outside this place. It was revealed that, in 2021, he had earned more than £1 million in a single year, including by representing tax havens in the Caribbean. However, he was absent from parliamentary votes because of this outside work, and in one case even voted by proxy from 4,000 miles away.

Between 2023 and 2024, the right hon. and learned Member declared more than £836,000 of external earnings for 500 hours of work—the equivalent of 66 full days’ work—while having contributed to just four debates in the whole of 2023. In the whole of the last Parliament, he contributed to just 20 debates here in the Commons. Looking at Hansard, that included a contribution to just one debate in 2020 and one debate in 2021, and there is no record of him having contributed to a debate in 18 months. That is in stark contrast to what we heard about Dr Dan Poulter. It is not a party political point. Dan Poulter contributed to 124 debates in the last Parliament and made some significant contributions with his experience as a mental health doctor. The hon. Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) is a Labour MP and a doctor who puts in shifts in accident and emergency, not just to keep up her medical qualification but because that enlightens the House and informs the legislation that we debate here.

No, I am taking issue with that very, very small number of MPs who give the rest of us a bad name by earning huge sums of money for the hours of work they put in outside of this place in what is, frankly, their first job, not their second. They and we must remember that our principal employer is the voting public in those areas that we represent. Being elected as an MP is a massive privilege. It is a role that we should strive to do our very utmost to fulfil. We must work night and day to repay the trust that is put in us by voters. The Modernisation Committee should ensure that we are focused first and foremost on our jobs here.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the shadow Leader of the House.